This was such an interesting book! I really enjoyed this but felt like I was a bit lost at times. I feel like it could maybe use another round of editing but this was still a fun time nonetheless

2.5⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books inc for this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I love witchy books, and a witch doing good deeds from her apothecary was a cool concept! But I kind of wanted there to be a bit more - and a witchy apartment above a strip mall was .. not quite that.
Overall this book has flaws. A lot of potential, I enjoyed some elements of it, but I found it lacking the magic it needed.

The love story is a bit cliché, but was cute for the most part. The ending felt a bit rushed and I didn’t really like this book as much as I wanted too..

So sadly i DNF this book about 50 pages in which has annoyed me as it started off to well. i ended up putting this book down and didnt pick it up again. not sure why, most likely i wasnt in the mood for it. i have put it back on my TBR with the hopes to read it again this fall/winter when i am in more of a reading mood. but until then i am sorry to say i cant give a full review

Look, I'm a sucker for ANYTHING with witches. But then you had a sapphic witch story? COUNT ME IN!!!

Friends-to-lovers is far superior to enemies-to-lovers in my humble opinion. This is what this story provides! It's a cute story, with even better supporting characters that you can't help but to love!

This was really interesting, I wasn’t necessarily expecting to like it, but it’s caught me from the beginning. I love the characters and, without spoilers, how they developed during the novel.

The Laws of Magic is an intriguing book of two characters running from their past and trying to help their town. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this work. The writing was well done my only complaints is that sometimes the dialogue felt off. The story wasn’t quite my style but thats not a fault of the writer or anything just my own. But for what it is I thought Ulrich did a great job.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This book surprised me. It is marketed as an urban-fantasy and I think it had that element but it wasn't fantasy-heavy. It was accessible for people who don't naturally gravitate towards supernatural. I wanted something to ground me further in the world but it didn't have anything as an anchor.

The premise sounded intriguing, but I found it rushed and underdeveloped. It just wasn’t really for me.

I like urban fantasy, and maybe suburban fantasy could be a genre I could get into. I was reminded a bit of Chocolat and its sequel. But lesbian. Which improved it for me, although the characters didn't always ring true and I really wanted them to.

The Laws of Magic is a welcome and charming story about two women with complex backgrounds meeting and falling in love when they least expect it. It has a great cast of characters and a good narrative that completes nicely. I do wish there had been some fleshing out in some of the parts of the book where it would've grounded the overall plot but it's forgivable in a book that's more love story than thriller.

Isla is a witch and runs an apothecary in a strip mall from which she helps both the human and nonhuman residents of Bender, Massachusetts. Lu is a security guard at the strip mall. Both have their reasons for not wanting to get involved, but when temptation proves too much and darker forces threaten Isla's community can they work together or will their secrets prove too big?

This was... aggressively average. The concept was cute and had a lot of potential, but the execution really left me wanting.
The writing style was really just not for me. There was a lot of unnatural dialogue, which was constantly used to tell the reader what every character was thinking and feeling, with very little action or showing.
The action/mystery side-plot felt very and not well planned out. There were a lot of elements that seemed as though they were just thrown in to add drama and up the stakes, but it ended up feeling forced and really took me out of the narrative. There was even an entirely cliched "super villain monologue" that was essentially used to recap the plot and reveal the "twists".
The romance also felt very insta-lovey and tried very hard to gloss over all the obvious incompatibility issues.

Overall, it was fine and probably more suited for a light, surface-level read.

Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for my e-arc of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

While I enjoyed the urban fantasy world, as well as the dynamic relationship between the two main characters, I do think that the book did not develop the 'magic system' quite as thoroughly as I was hoping for. This made it a bit more of a guessing game as to what goes on in the books reality, and took me out of the story a bit. That said, I always love a queer fantasy and the more gay magic books we get, the better.

The Laws of Magic is a fun light fantasy sapphic romance novel between a guarded witch shopkeeper and the grumpy security guard that is stationed in her parking lot. I liked both MC’s, they were real and messy and their romance progressed naturally. It was fun to watch how awkward their interactions were when they both just desperately wanted to kiss and refused to acknowledge that fact at all. My two favorite characters were Isla’s two best friends, however. They were fun, loyal, supportive, and pushed her buttons in a way that kept me giggling. The romance was sweet and fluffy and I loved how they were both stubborn and constantly screwing up and desperately in love. The magic system was a little lacking in that it isn’t very involved, there isn’t much detail given or development that occurs. Some people have some magic powers and that’s about all the explanation you get. But also it doesn’t really need to go more in-depth than that for the plot so it didn’t bother me. Overall, this was a fun read, it had romance and magic and stakes that weren’t high enough to make me anxious but still high enough to keep my interest piqued as they figured out just how the hell to get out of the mess.

This book was very cute. There was a lot of quirk that was charming, and I liked the characters individually. Unfortunately I think the chemistry was lacking between the characters and that caused me to lose some interest. Otherwise I liked it.

A very cute premise that I just couldn’t fall into. I would watch it as a tv show but the writing did not hold up to the story.

A small town romance with a witch and other quirky inhuman characters? I was all there for it! (loved the cover too btw) Unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations...the romance seemed forced, the danger seemed forced and there were too many senseless plotlines that didn't tie up neatly in the end. Which is a shame cause it had a lot of potential but they way it turned out it's not really as great as I think it could have been.

***Thank you Netgalley en Boldstroke Books for giving me the chance to read and review this book.***

An interesting read….. it features a cozy romantic fantasy novel. Isle is a powerful witch who owns a small town apothecary shop that serves humans and inhumans. Lu is a security guard who monitors the strip mall that Isle’s shop is in. When suspicious things keep helping to the shop and it’s people, the two must get past revealed secrets and their respective past and bind together to beat the evil force ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Isla Hoffman is a witch. She owns a successful apothecary shop. She treats both inhuman and humans with a mix of natural herbal cures and some magic. She is a very kind person who’s had a mysterious past with her family.
Lu Cadman is a security cop on patrol in the strip mall where the apothecary shop is located. They talk everyday and start to have feeling for each other, but Lu has a secret.
They’re great cast of characters that provided all sorts of magic mischief. The MC’s have great chemistry. You never know where they would take you next. It was a fun and innocent romance between two quirky characters. I liked the book, and I enjoyed this supernatural story.

Thank you NetGalley for sharing an digital ARC with me in exchange for an honest review.

The Laws of Magic by M. Ullrich revolves around Isla Hoffman, a witch that found herself finally as a healer for the residents of Bender, Massachusetts and Lu Cadman, who works as a security for a sleepy strip mall. Their paths intervene and an adventure begins.

The story itself starts very slow to build up the characters and the dynamics between them. The author gives a lot of details about the romance between Isla and Lu, which starts as a simple nice gesture of bringin the other one hot and steamy tea. It was kind of hard to get into the story with such a slow pace, but when you stick through it the pace changes dramatically. There were so much going on at the same time to hook the reader to the story, but I am not quite sure how good everything was planned out. In th end it was an interesting read, but I wouldn't pick up a sequel, because I couldn't quite connect with the characters and the story itself like I wanted to.

I have a lot of mixed feelings on this book

Firstly, I was drawn in by the cover art and how incredibly beautiful it was, and the premise of the story sounded interesting too !!!
I rlly like Isla, she’s a great character and I loved the part she played in the community within the book. The story was a little slow at first, and I’m a bit unsure about how I felt about the romance overall. Definitely a fun read and I did enjoy it !!